(Yicai) May 29 -- The Mona M03 Max is the world’s first vehicle in the CNY150,000 (USD20,820) price bracket to offer ‘full-feature’ smart driving assistance on par with that of flagship models costing over CNY500,000 (USD69,400), Xpeng Motors’ chairman said at yesterday’s launch event.

The budget sedan is the world's first car priced under USD20,000 to have ‘full-feature’ advanced autonomous driving capabilities as standard, He Xiaopeng said. ‘Full-feature’ refers to an advanced driver assistance system that has high standards in hardware, software, and functionality.

The Mona M03 Max delivers powerful and smooth driving support across a wide range of driving scenarios, including highways, urban roads, and rural routes, while also handling complex traffic conditions such as intersections, roundabouts, tunnels and bridges, He said.

It also features Xpeng’s Turing AI ADAS, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance safety and driving experience, and debuts a co-driving mode, which allows the driver to take control when needed without fully disengaging the driver assistance system.

The price of the Mona M03 Max is now lower than the pre-sales price of more than CNY150,000 (USD21,000) that was announced last August. The 502-kilometer range version costs CNY129,800 (USD18,020), while the 600-km range version is priced at CNY139,800 (USD19,400).

The Guangzhou-based automaker also launched a more budget-friendly model, the Mona M03 Plus, with a starting price of CNY119,800 (USD16,630). Within one hour of the launch, Xpeng received 12,566 orders, with the Max version accounting for 83 percent.

“Competition in the auto market isn’t very fierce yet, but it will escalate dramatically sometime in the next five years,” He warned. Price competition will not be enough to support growth for automakers, they must compete on technology and look beyond China’s borders, he added.

China’s electric vehicle makers have been mired in vicious price competition since Tesla slashed its prices in 2023. This cutthroat rivalry, often referred to in Chinese as ‘neijuan,’ meaning involution, is a self-defeating cycle of ever-intensifying competition that yields diminishing returns. Concerns of a renewed price war were sparked last week when Shenzhen-based car giant BYD cut prices.

He said on Xpeng’s earnings conference call on May 21 that he is confident that the carmaker, which he co-founded in 2014, will more than double sales this year, adding that he expects it to start making money by the fourth quarter.

Xpeng is not the only car company investing heavily in smart driving tech. BYD rolled out its God’s Eye ADAS system in February and announced that all of its models will soon come with smart driving features. Its DiPilot 100 system covers 21 models priced between CNY70,000 (USD9,716) and CNY200,000 (USD27,760). GAC Aion and Leapmotor are also strongly pushing ADAS.

Editor: Kim Taylor